Costa Coffee

As part of an innovative, space-saving, web-based kiosk solution, Costa Coffee has standardised on the high speed, wide-format TSP800POS printer from Star Micronics to produce detailed EPOS and E-stock reports in each of the organisation’s 250 outlets as well as high quality receipts. Developed by Crown Management Services, ‘Caterwide’ is the first solution of its kind to be implemented in the retail environment. It is a web-based business solution that includes accounting, stock control, MIS, procurement and supply chain management, and is accessible from any PC or browser by remotely-located regional and national management as well as in-store staff. Caterwide has been implemented as a combined tilling and back office system; a means of saving premium floor space by negating the need for either storage space or the traditional ‘back office PC’ typical of this type of business, in addition to controlling costs and profits whilst improving transaction values. The TSP800 was chosen as the standard printer for this web-based kiosk solution because of its compact design (virtual A6 footprint) and high speed output (150mm per second), but more importantly, because of its integral scaling facility that allows the content of A4 reports to be printed out in A6 format, again, adhering to Costa Coffee’s policy for minimising space that is not dedicated to customer service. The Star TSP800 has met Costa Coffee’s cost and quality requirements as well as providing the Star ‘drop-in & print’ easy paper loading function, an essential feature in an environment where staff should optimise their time communicating with a high throughput of customers, in keeping with the Costa Coffee brand image. Steve Rix, business systems manager for Costa Coffee, added, “The TSP800 was the only printer in its price range and size that was capable of offering the multi-functional output we needed, producing reports and receipts in addition to tickets and labels, should we need them.” To date, the Caterwide solution, incorporating the TSP800, has been implemented in 150 of the 250 Costa Coffee operations, located in high street stores, airports, railway stations, Abbey National building societies and Ottakers book shops. Roll-out will continue during the forthcoming months.